Turkey’s NATO Membership for Sweden on Turkish Parliament’s Agenda
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee has announced that Sweden’s NATO application will be on the agenda for discussion on Boxing Day. This announcement was made on the parliament’s website.
During a previous discussion in mid-November, there was a lively debate regarding Sweden’s application, and the decision was deferred to the future. Fuat Oktay, the committee chairman, stated in an interview with Bloomberg news agency in mid-December, “We are of course not in a hurry, we have our own priorities.”
The committee is set to discuss a total of ten points, with Sweden’s application being the last on the list. Turkish journalist Guldener Sonumut emphasized the importance of the choice of words that the committee will use if a majority is reached regarding Sweden’s application.
The committee can request parliament to make a decision on the issue in three ways: urgent, prioritized, or “time enough.” According to Sonumut, if the case is given urgent status, the accession treaty could be adopted as early as Friday. If given priority status, a decision could be made either at the end of the year or at the beginning of the next.
However, it is most likely that the last variant will be chosen, making it more difficult to determine when the decision will be taken up by parliament. This option will give the National Assembly the opportunity to wait for approval from the United States on the sale of the F-16 fighter jet.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently mentioned that he and US President Joe Biden discussed a potential deal where Turkey says yes to Sweden’s application in exchange for the approval of the F-16 sale from the US. This exchange has added a new layer of complexity and diplomatic negotiations to the ongoing discussions surrounding Sweden’s NATO application.